“Perhaps we should love ourselves so fiercely that, when others see us, they know exactly how it should be done.”

—

Rudy Francisco

=====

Ok.

Society norms.

Group norms.

Individual norms.

They are (kind of) the three behavioral levels of why we do the shit that we do.

Each is powerful in its own right. And while creating alignment within all three can sometimes be a real bitch of a challenge, I would actually suggest we should view individual behavior the following way:

Society norms.

Individual norms.

Group norms.

I suggest this because I believe individual norms, our personal behavior, is constantly being squeezed by society overall as well as the groups in our circle of influence.

I note this because, if you are not careful, you get squeezed into, well, maybe not nothingness, but certainly “lessness.”

I note this to suggest you almost always have to fight back.

Okay. How about this instead?

Let’s say you gotta sharpen your elbows and create some space for you in between what society is suggesting <which often feels a lot like it is actually demanding> and what your current circle is outlining as the right way to think and behave.

It is fairly easy to sharpen your elbows and fight back, but without some thought you are simply fighting. You end up fighting with no purpose other than it feels good to fight back in some way. And while fighting back in and of itself is somewhat satisfying because you feel like you should it is less than satisfying because it has no real focus or purpose. I will not suggest it is completely ‘wasted energy’ but it is certainly less than efficient use of your energy.

So what about the ‘thought’ part then? This is where ‘knowing what you want and knowing who you are’ rears its ugly head.

Being “anti” something is pretty easy. I could actually suggest in some ways it is lazy. But what I do know for sure is that being “for something” is hard. Like … well … really hard. You not only have to convince yourself that what you are standing for is something … but also mentally accept it is not going to perfectly align with your group norms as well as the societal norms. Yeah. That means on occasion, maybe even often, you may not be in alignment with all the shit going on around you.

I would argue the former, convincing yourself, is the most difficult part.

Why?

Who I am today is not who I will be tomorrow … combined with … you cannot really hide from what will be … which makes fighting back partially a constant battle of movement and adaptation.

Here is what I know.

Society is not always right.

Your group is not always right.

So why should you always have to be right?

Fighting back isn’t about being “right.” It is simply about fighting for what is right … you. I will not call it individual rights but rather the right to be an individual. Maybe it is also partially a fight for the part of you that you love. I imagine this suggests you gotta find a part of yourself to love … but that I most likely a different post and thought for a different time.

But I love the quote I opened with. It is different than the typical “you have to love yourself before you can …” idea.

It is more about the benefit to you.

It is living Life by example. And maybe that is the bigger thought.

Fighting back against society … against some of your circle of acquaintances norms … is not about simply fighting for fighting sake but rather fighting to show that you, who you are and what you do, shines a fierce light on something you love <who you are and the things you do>.

Yikes. That’s kind of a scary thought. Maybe it is a “hope to attain one day“ type thought.

And you know what? That’s okay.

Hard.

But okay.

Hard because society & group norms suggest the only way you can fight back is to “know now” and not “hope to be.”

Fuck ‘em.

We are a work in progress. All of us and all ‘norms.’

No matter what society says and your group norms state <sometimes unequivocally> we are a constant work in progress. The fight is never a battle for ‘lessness’ … no one can even kiddingly suggest that … all norms at all levels desire ‘moreness.’

They may just not know how to do it or what it looks like.

If you love your ‘work in progress self’ fiercely maybe, just maybe, you will show how it’s done.

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”

―

Anne Bradstreet

==============

……… tweet from Republican National Party on June 14, 2018 ………….

Join or Else. If there is one common theme Trump and his merry band of corrupt amoral yahoos have espoused, this is it. Yeah. They may cloak it in some vapid superficial niceties, but, in the end, it “Join or Else.

That said. (stepping back to my words of January 2017)

———————————-

Well.

Yesterday was an interestingly disturbing day to begin “the new era of The United States of America.”

I listened to the Trump inauguration speech with growing horror. It had all the trappings of authoritarianism wrapped snugly in a blanket of patriotism & promises of wealth, security, strength and ‘greatness.’

I listened to it not just as a citizen but as a business guy.

Yeah. Populism can be seen in business just as it can be seen in politics. In business it can be called ‘the cult mentality’ and more often than not its leader is a ‘less-than-benevolent’ dictator. Let’s call it a ‘join, or else’ culture. You can drive membership in this culture a couple of ways … both grounded in fear.

Fear of losing <part 1>.Outsiders are trying to steal what is ours … people who don’t believe in what we believe in are trying to steal what is ours … join us because we are the people who count and matter.

I do not want to lose what is rightfully mine.

Fear of losing <part 2>.I am on the outside looking in and … well … holy shit … if I don’t join I am gonna lose everything <or be branded as a non joiner>.

I will join because if I don’t I am up shit creek without a paddle and lose what I have.

Businesses try this shit all the time. It is their way of building a strong culture, claiming it is inclusive, albeit inclusive is grounded by ‘a tight set of club rules.’ They will argue it is not a tight set but rather a basic construct which binds people in a good way … you call it tomato and I call it rotten. This Trump version of populism is, well, it goes beyond corporate cult culture. This version is close to being batshit crazy dangerous thought leadership.

Let’s look at the brochure and talk a minute with the Trump Club recruiter.

The cover of the brochure suggests an unstoppable America, driven solely by self-interest, in other words, our Club wins at all costs at the expense of anyone who stands in our way! <“if you want to win, join us” it says …>.

It further reads with threatening all those who might stand in the way of this Club and it’s winning/great objective. It contains an adamant stance of ‘no real choice’, i.e., a demanded unity not an asked for unity.

Yeah.

Some of the club benefits look awful good in the brochure … more & better jobs, stronger economy, stronger security, less business regulations and country pride. And then I turn over the brochure just to check out the legalese, the cost of the benefits as it were, to explore how the promises of the Club will be delivered.

The headline on the back of the brochure really wanted me to join this club … the message of “join today because today is the day the people become the rulers of this country.” I vaguely remember that being the call of the French Revolution but it sounds cool <although I could swear we, the people, have been voting in people as representatives for awhile>.

But. Whew. It sounds good. I like it.

It feels empowering and inspirational with the added comfort that I will no longer be one of “the forgotten people which will be forgotten no longer.” I know for sure that would like to not be forgotten and being part of a club would be nice and … well … gosh … uhm … now that I think about it … I didn’t know I had been forgotten.

The recruiter leans forward and says “of course you were, the intellectual globalist elite in Washington and around the world have been keeping you down … they don’t care about you … they have forgotten that it was you that made them part of the wealthy elite.”

Ok. But didn’t your Club President build his wealth off the backs of ‘forgotten people’ and … well … it seems like they aren’t any better off but he is a shitload better off, doesn’t it?

Oh … no, no, no … he appreciates everything they have done for him. Hey. And don’t you want to be wealthy too?

I look down at the brochure and I see the bolded ‘make wealthy’ words and have to ask the club recruiter, decked out in an ‘America first’ hat and neatly pressed ‘make America great’ uniform like shirt, I ask the recruiter … “this becoming wealthy thing … its sounds an awful lot like Amway.”

Oh, no, it is nothing like that at all. Our Club will make everything great for everyone and you will have great opportunities to get the wealth you have always deserved, but haven’t got, because the lazy, less than hard working elite will not get it anymore … we will make sure you get your fair share. Hey. Look at this picture of the Club President in his office … check out the gold curtains … the gold rug and the gold fixtures … that is wealth. That is what you can be part of!

Oh.

And, look, if you join today you get a hat <which you should wear as often as possible so that we can tell who is in the club and who isn’t>.

And, even better, we should have some additional pieces of apparel you can wear soon. In fact … we will have special uniforms & badges for the original club members to showcase their elite status in the club … everyone will want to wear them.

Ok. One last question … your club is “God’s chosen.” I didn’t know God chose … I thought he was all about equal among all men. Does this mean that other clubs don’t believe in God or does God just favor us? And does this mean I have to believe in your version of God and … well … what exactly is your version of God?

“Oh.

Well.

We are a Christian based club … but of course we accept anyone. But don’t forget … Christianity, above all, outlines all the values which lead to a better version of yourself … and, well, that is what we want all Club members to be able to achieve. Everyone should have values, don’t you think?”

Whew. This is fucking crazy shit going on

To be clear. A shitload of the club leaders and followers are going to try and draw some false comparisons and equivalents to past American heroes.

To be clear. This is significantly different than Thomas Jefferson’s plea for unity in his inaugural address in 1800 — “every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.”

The Trump club has one principle and one opinion.

There is no room for anything else. More important than color of skin, religion, gender … this may actually be my root concern with ‘the club’.

The main principle?

Believe what I believe … or you are not a true believer.

That kind of seems to be the club. Kind of an “us versus them” attitude … uhm … although us <being a US citizen> is actually also them <being US citizens>.

“Oh no … no … why wouldn’t you believe in the United States of America if you lived in there? … everyone believes that. And if they don’t? … well … they should.”

Anyway. Oh. One last question. I didn’t hear it anywhere from the Club President or see it in the brochure … do you guys have a constitution?

Oh, we don’t need one. We just demand a ‘total allegiance to the Club’ … oh … which believes the same things as the country wants … so you should be all for it.”

(ME) Gosh. I am not sure I can join this club … I already have a constitution I live by … and my allegiance is, first & foremost, to that and not some Club and how they think. <period … end of statement>

Look. The one thing Trump was 100% right on is that January 20, 2017 was the dawn of a new era.

“Now comes the hour of action.”

That was the call for the Trump Club. “Join or else”is what should be heard.

Just to be clear.

I am a believer in God <however you want to define it>.

I am a patriot <however you want to define it>.

I am a proud American <however you want to define it>.

But I am not joining the club called “Trump America.”

In fact … I say ‘fuck you and your fucking club.’

As for what I will do? …………….

===============

“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”

It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others…or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.”

–

Calvin Coolidge

==================

“Let’s be honest. There’s not a business anywhere that is without problems. Business is complicated and imperfect. Every business everywhere is staffed with imperfect human beings and exists by providing a product or service to other imperfect human beings.”

–

Bob Parsons

=========================

On Bastille Day it seems appropriate to take a minute and discuss “fraternite” in business.

Today is the French National Day, the 14th of July, or … le 14 juillet. By the way none of my friends in France call it Bastille Day <that is a creation of the American mind>. They celebrate Fête de la Fédération <the National Celebration> or just Le quatorze juillet <the fourteenth of July>. Regardless. The national holiday revolves around the national bleu-blanc-rouge flag and the French values of Liberté, Fraternité and Egalité (“liberty, equality, fraternity/brotherhood” … the national motto of France).

Anyway. Business. Inevitably a great organization exhibits both efficient AND effective progress. What typically creates that combination is part discipline, part structure, part leadership, all glued together by “fraternité”. That ‘glue’ is most often discussed in the American business world as ‘a vision’ or maybe ‘a purpose’. We do so because we Americans hate any kind of lack of specificity. But the truth is that the most common bond of a great organization is a more nebulous concept … one of “fraternité”.

Or.

“Any man aspires to liberty, to equality, but he cannot achieve it without the assistance of other men, without fraternity.”

(Napoleon)

Oddly enough, while this sounds relatively common sense, I kind of feel like business itself needs a revolution to overturn the current thinking to accommodate what should be common sense.

What do I mean? Current business is kind of in a wacky spot. It talks a lot about vision and purpose as if they are “things” … like maybe a lighthouse anyone can see as they bob around the chaotic sea of business life to find a way home. By the way … I would argue that is a very individualistic thought — “I can find my way home” type thought – and not really a team thought <but that could quite easily be debated>.

Regardless. Fraternity is more like “everyone not only knowing what they need to do to keep the ship afloat but actually pitching in whether needed or not because they love the ship itself.” That may sound like some wacky nuance but I have to warn people that revolutions can kind of gain some momentum off of some fairly wacky things on occasion. By the way, this thought is a more nebulous “I feel this way” aspect of organizational culture and, as noted many times, if it cannot be measured or indexed or scored <note: most older leaders into today’s business just don’t like that kind of shit>.

Anyway. Not to beat this metaphor to death but I do believe we need a semi-revolution in the way business organizations are created and run and managed. I think we may need that revolution because “fraternité” as a core principle just ain’t the way business is run. And, yes, it should be viewed as a “core” principle because … uhm … when discipline falls apart, when structure falls apart, when leadership falls apart … what keeps you on the battlefield and fighting is … yeah … “fraternité.” Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people talk about a “community” or “company team” or some other nice sounding platitude which sounds a lot like “fraternité” but its mostly lip service.

On a bigger organizational level I worry about how an idea like this is getting suffocated by generational issues <younger people desire something and older people think they know the best> and maybe an outcome-is-the-only-thing-that-matters versus a belief business should incorporate altruistic aspects. Both of those conflicts are HUGE issues. I have written about in 1200+ word thought pieces on both of these but, on the former, the best piece I can share is from Corporate Rebels “Cut The Crap: The Made-Up Nonsense About Generations At Work” which states all people want meaning at work (regardless of age or generational label).

I actually believe we need some revolutionary thinking on the latter. To me we have a bunch of people who look at business and turn away because … well … I fear that they only believe they can change the world through more altruistic pursuits and not traditional business. And, yes, they are important and good pursuits but, from a larger perspective, business drives the world. Business makes shit that makes lives easier and healthier and impacts the home and life in ways that it is difficult to imagine let alone outline in a few words <and the business office/working groups creates behavioral cues which ripple out into culture>.

Somehow … someway … we need to insert the ‘believers of principles’ into the business world with all of their ambition and hope and remind them – and empower them – that they can change the world.

That they can make the world a better place. They can make society and people and lives better. And they can do it in business … not just altruistic career opportunities. If we do that, and do that well, I tend to believe we will build more organizations driven at its core by a sense of “fraternité” rather than a bunch of documents setting out some guiding principles, vision and purpose which everyone says “okay … let’s do that.”

It is quite possible that I am talking about ‘the soul’ of an organization. What I do know is that … well … read the following quote:

====================

“I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well.”

Alan Greenspan

===============================

I do believe we need to be drawing some lines in business. And I don’t mean company handbook type lines or even some well-crafted ‘lines’ in “how we conduct our business” or “who we are” but maybe they are more lines with regard to some unwritten principles.

I say that because when you can gather a group of people together who share a strong set of principles … well … they will walk straight into a hail of bullets to not only survive but to get good shit done.

==========

“Morality, like art, means drawing a line someplace.

Oscar Wilde

===========

Now. Business absolutely makes dealing with your principles a constant struggle. It can kind of suffocate your principles in between the pragmatic aspects of getting shit done <discipline & structure> and the faux burden of some vision or grander purpose which “you know is important to us therefore it should be important to you.” Frankly, when suffocated by these bookends you don’t have a lot of elbow room for any type of true, intangible, unsolicited camaraderie.

The fraternité is more forced than natural. Obviously, when it is not natural it is not as strong.

In the end.

Fraternité in business. I believe we have forgotten this. And while I do believe many of us have forgotten how to draw lines with regard to our principles I tend to believe business, in general, has simply decided to just draw lines <in a box in fact> and say “there you go” … there are your principles and rules for comraderie.

That is kind of whack.

Look. I can honestly tell you that being a senior leader in a business and organization you like <you do not have to love> may be one of the greatest experiences anyone can ever have. What makes that experience truly great is when you are fortunate enough to foster something intangible, something that really cannot be measured, and something which doesn’t earn you some performance bonus at the end of the year … it is when you stumble upon the sense of fraternité.

I am sure some organizational guru will send me a link to “steps to build a fraternité organization” and … well … good for them. I tend to believe this is one of those soul aspects, intangible things, that is created less by some “how to” guide or some formula and more by simple good intentions combined with some good discipline, construct and leadership. To steal another word from the motto, by creating a fraternité organization you inevitably create Liberté for the organization to be te best version of what it can be.

This is what I thought about today, July 14th, as I thought about the national motto of France “liberty, equality, fraternity <brotherhood>”. With that I imagine I should end with where I began … no enterprise can exist for itself alone. That is the foundation for a fraternité organization.

I almost called this “day <fill in the blank>of the shitshow” but I didn’t.

Look.

I am no genius but at the Trump 100 day mark I suggested the second 100 days would look a lot like the first 100 days <inconsistent, ineffective & incompetent> for several very sound, rational reasons. And as we close in on 200 days … well … I look like a genius. And … just to share my conclusion if you want to stop reading now … I envision the next 100 days just as hollow as the last 200 days for almost exactly the same reasons.

Until the main reason is solved <quality people in necessary staff positions> the lean, mean and obscenely incompetent current white house staff will remain incredibly competent at … well … doing nothing truly meaningful <but maintaining an appearance of disruptive thinkers>.

I will ignore the tweets … entertaining but absurd.

I will ignore the unnecessary hyperbole … entertaining and absurd.

I will ignore the rambling nonsensical monologues … not as entertaining and even more absurd.

I will ignore the bizarre foreign policy steps … entertaining to watch but absurdly dangerous in reality.

However … I will pay attention to leadership and results.

I have to assume despite the fact the President claims a finely tuned white house which has done more than any other resident since maybe FDR … this whole adventure has not been exactly how he planned it to go.

For someone who likes winning I am not so sure this kind of ‘winning’ is what he had in mind.

For someone who claims to be ‘the best negotiator’ <or at least better than anyone in government prior to him> I am not so sure this kind of ‘negotiating results’ or even public glimpses into his negotiating skills is what he had in mind.

For someone who claimed “I alone can fix it” I am not so sure this is the kind of ‘fixing’ he had in mind.

==============

“Deals are my art form. Other people paint beautifully or write poetry. I like making deals, preferably big deals. That’s how I get my kicks.”

—

Donald Trump

==================

What has the administration done?

Well, yes, in the first 6 months some things truly have been done.

First, I will ignore the stock market. As every president prior to this absurd one recognized … the market has a mind of its own and, in general, ignores presidents <so attaching yourself to it and ts results is like pegging my success to some squirrel in my backyard>. But even with its general disregard for a President what the stock market has really learned is that Trump will not do as much as some had hoped for … and others feared. In the stock market’s mind this is called ‘clarity’ or certainty … and markets thrive when uncertainty diminishes <because then it is all about trends and not surprises>. Trump will not like to hear it but the central banks control the fate of stock markets more than he will ever want <so he should actually be cuddling up to central bank more>.

Second, I will ignore the Supreme Court Justice nomination because this was a “gimmee putt” for any Republican who stumbled their way into the oval office.

Just as I wouldn’t have credited Hillary this “win” was owned by whatever party won the white house not the individual in the white house.

Anyway.

The first 200 days.

Yes. Things done. I would call it “tinkering under the hood” stuff. Some executive orders, some cutting back on regulations, maybe taking some, what they would consider, unnecessary pieces out so the engine can run a little more effectively.

Most things have been ‘destruction’ type actions and not construction type actions.

And none of them are the bigger things which make radical shifts with regard to the country’s well-being.

Here is the problem with the Trump administration just tinkering under the hood. During the campaign and continuing into the first 200 days the administration, and Trump in particular, have claimed I have a Hyundai and I deserve a Ferrari.

Therefore, to date, they are just giving me a better running Hyundai and they still haven’t shown me <a> what my Ferrari is going to look like or <b> when I may expect to see my Ferrari in my driveway or even <c> what they are going to do to actually make it possible to have a Ferrari.

That alone makes for a fairly hollow first 200 days.

But why haven’t we received even those basic, what I would call, “map of things you should expect” stuff?

To date this administration has been defined by … well … a fog of dysfunction driven by a clammy inconsistent breeze called Donald J Trump which leaves us all feeling a little uneasy that something bad awaits us in the fucking clammy fog.

Look.

While I buy he is transactional … he is an inconsistent transactional person. He shows no sign of cohesive thinking, shows poor instincts and a complete lack of impulse control <which derails any necessary momentum every sane business leader knows you need to have to sustain any larger idea> and an extraordinarily immature naïve view of how the world really works <business, government and global> all buried in a pea like brain that does not envision what the end game looks like.

I score the last 200 days as relatively hollow and, once again, I see no signs of changes needed to get us out of hollow in and into substance.

I personally do not see him changing <becoming more engaged, take on more responsibility and try and lead rather than criticize> therefore the administration will live and die by the people who will end up in the administration <assuming they ever do join up>. Trump really has no policy – which is needed to lead without actually having to hold everyone’s hand — therefore he needs to <a> hire people who understand policy and can sell policy and <b> accumulate a group of policy makers who are aligned <not by loyalty but rather by ideology> so that the end puzzle gets built so it looks like a frickin’ puzzle and not just a bunch of random policies which look good in isolation but crappy when viewed together.

There needs to be a team, not a loyal team, but a qualified team for any chance to get out of this hollow hole we seem to get deeper and deeper into.

Yeah yeah yeah. Trumpeteers will come out of the woodwork and suggest “this is not Trump’s fault.”

They would be wrong.

I have been in so many companies that have told me to hire only to have my candidates get mired in the HR administrative mud for so long you are fairly sure they were just humoring you into believing you could actually hire someone that I can certainly feel the pain of hiring and open positions.

But this is not the case.

The congress has been slower in confirming Trump candidates but it is not because of democrats or congress inefficiency it is because Trump nominees are slow to complete paperwork or have to deal with conflict issues <they are often non-traditional appointees>. In addition the president has been even slower to send nominations to Congress.

The Trump administration is not eliminating the positions, Trump is just deciding not filling them <I assume he is not convinced they would actually provide value>.

Sure … there is a legitimate truth that government should be streamlined <positions eliminated> but not nominating needed people to implement your transactional ideology simply means … well … none of your frickin’ transactions get completed <and a business person of any competence whose career has been built off of transactions, and not vision, would know this>.

Anyway.

A couple things that become concerning beyond the staffing challenge as we move on to day 201 and beyond:

They market problems not solutions

I was foolish enough to subscribe to the White House Daily email. I will admit.

If I read it every day I would most likely slit my wrists. Every single email highlights a problem … disaster, failing, crime, horrible trade deals, being taken advantage of, the list goes on and on and on.

Shit.

In one email they actually suggested one of their own departments, The Congressional Budget Office, yeah … one of their OWN DEPARTMENTS … did not know how to do their job <… dude … they report to you …>.

They peddle problems and diminish people.

So far over 200 days they have invested 198 days <I made that number up> pounding us that we are living in a shithole created by shit-for-brains people … and, yet, they have offered us solutions worth a shit.

That’s not what leaders do … even transactional leaders. Even transactional leaders stand up and show us a list of the transactions we are aiming to get done. Some leaders <most in fact> would think of this as “how you should judge me” information.

This criticism is not about the 330 million citizens of the country <albeit we would benefit from knowing his> this is more about getting shit done in the next 100, 200 and 300 days. The people who have to do the work, do the policy, will be significantly more effective if you hand out a project list of shit I want to get done. if you have smart qualified people they will be like ants on sugar <all over it>.

I am not suggesting we need an administration that is in the “unicorns & rainbow” business but I do know the country would benefit if the administration would peddle solutions rather than problems but the administration itself would also benefit because … well … that is how good organizations actually get their employees to do good shit. It would be nice if they stopped thinking in terms of being in the destruction business and thought more about being in the construction business with regard to ideas & policies.

Without it … expect more empty ‘doom & gloom’ marketing of problems in the 100 days ahead.

Which leads me to …

Lack of vision

I hire managers to manage tactics … I hire leaders to share a vision. A transactional leader is a tactical leader.

And you can get away with that for a while but at some point the tactics need to fill some vision bucket <or they are simply scattered drops of water destined to dry up in the heat of time>.

Look.

I imagine the number one gripe against Obama was that he was too visionary and not tactical enough <in public>. But no one ever doubted his vision for America and Americans. People may have griped about some of the tactics but we always knew the ‘why’ of the tactical and transaction decisions. We bitched about ‘bad deals’ but understood why the deal was being pursued.

Without vision clarity 300 million plus people sit in their homes and go to work absent of really knowing “why.” Uhm. In the absence of why understanding everything begins to look random and people, in general, do not embrace random as a way of Life.

They need to address those 2 thing. Fast.

Those two things are going to haunt this presidency for 100’s of days unless they are addressed.

Those two things are basic Leadership 101 things.

I say that because while I am as detailed as possible with regard to how to fix the hollow presidency’s arc of behavior I remain concerned that the president, a self proclaimed successful business person, shows little signs he understands basic leadership behavior <and attitudes>. I admit … while I sensed his early on I never expected him to be this inept at basic leadership skills.

Being the president is not the same as the hollow branding crap Trump has built his riches off of. Shit. A real business leader demands more knowledge than that. Leadership requires discipline, hard work, focus, at least a basic understanding of the details they want their organization to move forward with and, as Trump himself said, a willingness to get everybody in a room and hammer out a deal.

That’s leadership.

Through the first 200 days of Trump’s presidency … uhm … he has exhibited none.

That is all on him.

After 200 days the president has managed to showcase a stunning total lack of ability to lead. And I use ‘stunning’ because he actually has a Congress completely under Republican control.

This stunning lack of leadership actually has repercussions beyond how people like I will measure 100 days to come. While we will offer ‘what was done’ report cards ad nausea the ultimate measurement , and battle, will be over character – not tangible wins & losses..

I am fairly sure in the bible <Corinthians ?> it says something like: Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

I state that because over the first 200 days there has been a stunning lack of truth coming from this White House which appears to be a blatant attempt to corrupt the character of good men & women.

I have a thought piece coming up on how the Trump administration is building an alternative universe in a way that I am fairly sure not many of us in a free world have ever seen before <but I am familiar with it having read dozens of books on communist Soviet Union>.

They have subverted Fake News from meaning actually unsourced, completely made-up things like the Enquirer to news they simply do not like.

Transparency means sharing information only when asked and not done in a forthcoming way.

They have attempted to make honesty irrelevant by investing gobs of energy undermining anything & everything everyone else says <if no one is honest than honesty is in the eyes of the beholder>.

They have continued to construct such a stark alternative universe to what actually exists by using scraps of truth, using a language of their own making & using cult-like recruitment tactics so that normal everyday schmucks like you & I are offered such a stark contrast it becomes difficult to bridge between what they say and what we see.

In the end.

I will restate exactly what I said at the end of the 1st 100 days … suffice it to say that I see some fairly concerning hollowness. What I mean by that is after 100 days one could highlight a variety of empty spots which … well … will dog the administration from day 101 forward.

And while I would like to point out some specifics I think we would all like to let me conclude with the “issue to be resolved in order to eliminate future hollowness.”

I am not sure at 71 if Trump can actually attain what he really needs to be successful over the ensuing 100 day increments as a president – enlightenment.

The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.

–

Thomas Paine, A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal on the Affairs of North America

Beyond all the bizarre tweets, inappropriate speeches and overall adolescent behavior … he is a painful amateur leader. Painful in that even I, who has led but not to this level, cringe almost every day at the amateur mistakes he makes as a leader.

This amateurishness is a disease stalking the hallways of the White House. I say that because while it is clear to everyone but trump why ‘no one listens to him or shows loyalty to him’ it is not clear why some very talented knowledgeable leaders surrounding him aren’t building at least a semblance of a construct from which leadership could grow.

Trump must be a powerful disease to have infected true talent that much.

There are a bunch of things that could turn this bizarre ship around but one, and only one, thing truly matters – will President Trump ever permit his mind to be enlightened. For that is the path out of the darkness that his administration tries to convince us we all live in as well as some of the darker more ignorant & naïve aspects of the current administration’s behavior.

Lastly.

I don’t care if you voted for Trump or not … you have to admit this whole situation is bizarre and he is a seemingly bizarre human being.

You may not agree with me that he is a fool but I cannot find one person who doesn’t think this whole presidency so far is just fucking bizarre.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed. It is the only thing that ever has.”

—–

Margaret Mead

================

So.

I was listening to a bunch of talking heads on tv speculating on a staff shake up in the Trump white house personnel.

One thing I heard caught my attention … “well, part of the president’s issue is that he has kind of a hodgepodge of personnel.”

And that thought is correct. And it made me think a little bit.

The truth is once you move past managing a group or running a mom & pop sized business every management team you manage will be a hodgepodge of people, skills, personalities and … well … loyalty. Not only is it impossible to hire in ‘your people’ in every slot … most good leaders do not want to do that.

All that said.

To be clear.

Trump is possibly one of the crappiest senior leaders I have ever seen and he appears to have no belief that words matter and has no understanding of the concept of ‘communication alignment’ <let alone any alignment> … however … he is what he is. And because he is what he is … inconsistencies included … the staff he surrounds himself matters a shitload with regard to overall effectiveness.

What do I mean?

Trump forces his staff to adjust in real time as he communicates, and thinks, in real time.

Trump has never worked in a large organization nor has he ever truly had to manage a larger group of people, let alone senior executives.

He has always been the spokesperson and the brand and the final word … surrounded by family who was more than happy to simply double and triple down on whatever dad said <and be loyal to even his craziest tactical maneuvering and craziest words and wordsmithing>.

Real senior executives do not work that way nor is it a particularly effective method outside of a mom & pop structure.

In a real business organization you don’t get to pick & choose everyone in your circle … most times it is a hodgepodge of skills, personalities and experience. And you know what? You learn to manage them effectively because that is what a leader does.

You adapt some of you to accommodate some of them<yeah … sure … envision Trump doing that … uhm … sure … ain’t gonna happen>.

Trump is being forced out of his mom & pop management model into a more traditional larger business management model <and he is going kicking & screaming>.

Most people learn this as soon as they move from group management to department management <you cannot fire everyone and rehire only your people> and absolutely learn this lesson as soon as you move into the C-level positions.

Another aspect is when you get a position you do not treat it as an “I won so you need to …” but rather “I now get to lead and I am going to have to …”

All that said.

You learn some management personnel tricks to help you out.

I always tried to bring one person with me wherever I went as I moved up. Depending on the structure of the organization I always wanted at least one person who could “translate” me to the hodgepodge team. This wasn’t necessarily done to dictate my desires & behaviors onto a team but rather to help them align to how I managed so they could adapt and move faster.

I manage nothing like Trump but let’s assume Trump is moving into the presidency … it almost becomes mandatory for effectiveness that he has a team aligned on “what to do when Trump does his crazy.” He need a management team that doesn’t argue about what to do he needs a management team that absorbs the blow and moves out doing what needs to be done as the true power brokers for getting shit done.

By the way … this is not about loyalty to Trump this is about loyalty to most effectively getting good shit done. I didn’t care if people bitched about me behind my back <I always assumed they did> what I cared about is that they respected the general idea and invested their energy in trying to figure out how to best effectively implement the idea rather than invest energy trying to defend anything they really would have preferred just bitching about behind my back.

I always preferred loyalty to “getting good smart shit done”and always believed I would ultimately earn some respect if I <Me> always remained loyal to the idea of “enabling good smart shit to get done.”

Before I finish this thought I will admit my preference was always to try an bring in two foundational team members in order to kind of create some pillars … but you can get away with one to align a hodgepodge of managers & executives.

Anyway.

In an organization the size of a presidency Trump needs a translator but more importantly he needs an aligned team with regard to what to do with him and his behavior <and not be arguing over it>.

……… a Trump management team ………

Trump’s inclination will be with what he feels most comfortable with — family.

His next inclination will be with what makes him feel the best — the ones who unflinchingly try and power-broke the crazy <he would call them unflinching loyalists>.

Neither of those have anything to do with effective leadership nor do they have anything to do with effective ‘management of getting shit done.’

He has never been in a large organization nor has he managed a large group of people nor has he tried to get a large group of people aligned to agree & do some shit.

He naturally gravitates toward employees who don’t deliver bad news and those who deliver flattery.

They may feel good to have around but they are the absolute worst people to have on your management team. You only build a team like that if you have no interest in improving, no interest in any intellectual conflict <which is what actually sparks better ideas> and/or you are so insecure or arrogant <yes, you can be both> you don’t want any ideas other than your own.

Most often it is the senior leadership who challenges you that prompt new insights and help propel the group to success.

“You need people who have different points of view and aren’t afraid to argue. They are the kind of people who stop the organization from doing stupid things.”

Harvard Business Review

Look.

All leaders assume responsibility for a hodgepodge of senior managers. That’s what we do.

And we learn to set what expectations are and align on vision and encourage some flexibility & adapting and get going.

And we learn that some of what we do and what we think works a little better in one place than anther and that some people are better than we think at first blush and some people we really liked when we met them are worse than we thought.

And we learn that you don’t demand respect but rather earn it and loyalty is gained through respect.

I would imagine that engendering loyalty to Trump is hard in that up to this point loyalty most likely centered on fame & fortune. And most of us who have led in larger organizations understand that strong foundational loyalty is less about the tangible fame & fortune but rather respect. He is gonna have some problems with that.

I would imagine that effectiveness to Trump is blind support for him and what he says. And most of us who have led in larger organizations understand that effectiveness is less about support for what the leader says … but rather in structured response to a leader’s guidance & thoughts. I never wanted people to do what I said … I wanted people to do what needed to be done. He is gonna have some problems with that.

I would imagine that alignment to Trump is familial. And most of us who have led in a larger organization want the exact same thing … but we know we have a hodgepodge team who is ‘the family’ and we deal with it.

Would I shake up the Trump administration? Yeah. I surely would.

And I would do it almost exactly opposite of how I envision he is likely to do it.

He doesn’t understand there is a campaign team and now he needs an effective doing team. He bludgeoned us with his dull insights on the campaign trail and now he needs to focus more on action.

What would I do with his cadre of white men?

I, personally, would make Kushner my chief of staff. He has no fucking clue how to do the job but he knows the Trumpster better than anyone in the world.

Give him some deputies who have a shitload of government experience. Send Ivanka off to write a real book. And build a staff of Republican zealots who know how to get shit done. Trust the Kushner kid to translate what the Donald J crazy means to everyone.

Bannon can stay but he just needs to focus on feeding the Trump crazy and let Kushner kid deal with the crazy output.

Others <just off the top of my head>. I love Wilbur Ross. Mnuchin almost seems overwhelmed-giddy by being in the spotlight. I would find a sane version of Mulvaney to take his job. I would tell Tillerson to start hiring like a mad man and tell him he can fire whoever he doesn’t need once he actually has some staff to do some shit. Just get out of Mattis, McMaster and Kelly’s way. I can’t get rid of Sessions even though I think he is crazy <I think he thinks he lives in the 1950’s> but because he actually translates Trump crazy better than anyone other than maybe that little pit bull Lewandowski. I would wake up Carson, Perry, and all the other Cabinet members we haven’t heard a peep out of and ask them if they would like to participate in this circus.

I imagine my real point is that to be an effective leader of a hodgepodge group it is more important that THEY can work together than YOU like them.

Because if they can work together well than there is a better chance that the organization will not do stupid shit even if you make a stupid decision, your crazy will come to life as not-so-crazy pragmatism and knee-jerk spontaneous crazy asshat tweets simply get absorbed into seamless actions which make the tweets look a little less spontaneous, a little less knee jerk, a little less crazy … but still asshat because that is who you are.

And that is the value of a non-arguing hodgepodge group. They tend to mute the mistakes and crazy and amplify the actual good ideas and thoughts you may actually have.

If I were a management consultant for Trump <I would shoot myself> I would look at him as a lost cause … he is what he is. He is a flower <with thorns> and I would turn my attention to the environment the flower is growing in.

If I were a management consultant for Trump <I would shoot myself> I would find a team that maybe wasn’t on the “Trump train” but rather find competent people who can do shit that I want done <and let the chief of staff … who is on the Trump Train … get them doing Trump train shit>.

If I were a management consultant for Trump <I would shoot myself> I would turn to the Kushner kid and say “you wanted in … you are in. You are the Trump whisperer. Make shit happen.”

Let me be clear.

Trump will shake up his staff and maybe cabinet members and he will fuck it up. He has no idea how to manage a business organization other than in a mom & pop style and he has no innate leadership skills and his management instincts suck.

And he has no clue how to build an effective team <someone should tell him there is not enough room up his ass for all the people he actually needs to run a country let alone a viably larger sized organization>.

Oh. And he is a narcissistic asshat who believes no one knows better than he does.

In the end.

As I stated in my Trump 100 day piece … he did nothing in his first 100 days that would suggest the next 100 days <and foreseeable 100 day increments> would be any smoother, efficient or effective. I am 99% confident he will shake up his staff and management team and I cannot envision it proceeding smoothly, efficiently or effectively. Why? Because he has no clue what he is doing.

“Maybe we feel empty because we leave pieces of ourselves in everything we used to love.”

―

R. M. Drake

========================

“… ’Tis not for the victory, though, that we shall weep: there is nothing altered in that but the soul looks upon things with another eye and represents them to itself with another kind of face; for everything has many faces and several aspects.”

—

Michel de Montaigne

==========================

Ok.

The Trump administration’s 1st 100 days.

On the 94th day <today> of the Trump administration I am going to share my semi-unenlightened point of view on the first 100 days … mostly because I cannot envision any significant changes on the items I am judging the administration on in the next 6 days <and it seems like everyone else wants to judge them on other things>.

Regardless.

Suffice it to say that I see some fairly concerning hollowness. What I mean by that is after 100 days one could highlight a variety of empty spots which … well … will dog the administration from day 101 forward.

Now.

Before someone wants to suggest 100 days isn’t fair to judge or “how can you fairly assess someone and something in 100 days” I will state two things:

Read my assessment below. I will judge based off of my own business experience and, yes, I have endured absorbing a $100 million plus piece of business into an organization, have been part of several significant sized company mergers <think two top 12 national banks merging> as well as a onboarding a variety of difference sized and complex businesses and seen what it takes from operations, skills ramp up, process, accounting and the basic transferal of knowledge and project lists to insure nothing gets dropped.

Any time anyone ever pushes back on “100 days is not realistic” I refer to Napoleon.

A shitload can happen in 100 days if you know what you are doing, are a good leader and have a great support <management> team.

In fact you can gather almost 100,000 personnel and the materials needed to sustain them and move them hundreds of miles and get them to perform at the highest level if you really have your shit together.

100 days is a lifetime if you use it well.

Businesses can dither around and make excuses but if you cannot get something done in 100 days you should probably be looking for some other business to conduct.

If someone <Napoleon> can swing almost 100,000 men into action and in a span of three or four days of battle at the end of 100 days almost win a victory when outnumbered and out resourced it seems pretty logical that we in business can certainly make a widget in 100 days.

Of course … Trump would call Napoleon a loser.

Anyway.

That said. Trump administration and 100 days.

Now.

On a daily basis we get bludgeoned with so much shit from the Trump administration it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Suffice it to say there are so many things wrong it is a waste of time to point out any of the good. Most of the wrong things are larger structural issues which are … well … concerning.

So while Donald J Trump invests his energy trying to point out ‘things’ or, if I wanted to be generous, tactical activity, and signing a lot of documents … we should be more concerned about the structural activity, & inactivity, which just took place in the first 100 days.

As usual … I will not provide my judgement based on politics but rather through the lens of a business guy. Having endured a number of “first 100 days” I know what it takes and I know how if you get the 1st 100 days wrong it dogs you for … well … it dogs you. Suffice it to say you only make the “wow, I royally screwed up the first 100 days” once as a manager/leader.

You either get fired or you have learned the lesson so painfully you never permit it to happen again.

That said.

Here you go.

Hiring

In my Napoleon post I make a point about his most famous loss … from a business perspective the key to the Waterloo loss <to me> was simple. Napoleon didn’t have his tried & true chief of staff, Marshal Berthier, on this campaign.

Napoleon sorely missed the legendary Marshal Berthier as chief of staff, and Marshal Soult <his replacement> was a good, but not as good, substitute.

Oh.

And there was a domino effect on the entire management team as people shifted to assume slightly new roles.

Napoleon came within a whisker of winning at Waterloo … after only 100 days. One could argue that with his chief of staff the right little things would have happened and the wrong little things would have been minimized — and he would have won after 100 days.

Regardless.

One of the things you unequivocally know as a business leader is the best plans in the world aren’t worth a shit if you do not have the people to implement them. Yeah. Nothing kills a plan faster than no people to implement.

Trump has doubly failed on hiring … and this will dog him way beyond the 100 days it has already dogged him.

Doubly?

He first failed by not having the key people in place <as much as he could> on day one … to start running on day one. If you have a 100 day plan, and you actually plan on doing the plan in 100 days, you have to burst out of the starting gate … not amble … or stumble.

I would have identified the key people <not just Cabinet members but also midlevel & on-the-ground people> and had everyone all lined up to go. It’s your only chance to get a 100 day plan done.

That did not happen. Not even close. That is an F <and, to complete this point, Mattis and Kelly were excellent ‘hires’ … but Mattis still has something like 150 open posts under him>.

He secondly failed by not having the key people in place by the end of 100 days. This is not about cabinet members … this is about the people who keep the ship/shit running and who get the shit done. It is possible you can be forgiven for not being ready at the starting gate but if you are not … it is unforgivable to not have your main priority within your first 100 days to have a plan to have everyone in place by day 101.

That is business malpractice if not done.

He doesn’t need to hire all the open positions because I am fine with eliminating some unnecessary jobs … but … every sane business person in the world errs on the side of loading up on personnel upfront not only to insure all the shit gets done but not everyone is going to work out so the organization naturally thins out anyway.

This is an F. I would give lower if there was anything lower. This is going to dog him for … well … too long for the country’ sake.

Competence

“Ten times Trump asked her (Merkel) if he could negotiate a trade deal with Germany,” the newspaper quoted a senior German politician as saying.

“Every time she replied, ‘You can’t do a trade deal with Germany, only the EU’,” the politician said. “On the eleventh refusal, Trump finally got the message, ‘Oh, we’ll do a deal with Europe then.'”

Ok.

I would guess over 50% of everyday Americans would not know, because of the EU, that USA doesn’t negotiate one-on-one trade deals with European countries.

I would also guess over 95% of everyday Americans would have no clue whether Korea has ever been part of China.

I would also guess that over 75% of everyday Americans wouldn’t know that Korea is actually a peninsula and not an island.

I would actually guess that over 90% of Americans already knew that healthcare was really complicated.

But I would guess that 99.9% of Americans would like their president to know all this shit.

As a business person all of this ignorance is unacceptable. It is unacceptable because it is exactly like walking into a huge sales meeting without doing your homework.

And as for “learning & adapting”?

Sure. I give business people credit for that all the time … but not if it is something 99% of your peers already had learned and it was common knowledge.

You don’t get credit for simply catching up to what all of us already knew.

For god’s sake … I know all this shit and I am not even close to being qualified to being the President.

The majority of the time he is skating on the incredibly thin ice of the slippery surface of irrelevance. I am not sure how anyone could grade him higher than an F if I can point out that 90% of the entire country knew something he didn’t know … that this is all complicated.

So far his competence has skated on irrelevance & simple-minded. The Olympic skating judges would give him a 1.

The business judges would give him an F.

Corruption

This is the sword of Damocles. Or maybe it is the Pit and the Pendulum.

I do not begrudge a business person hesitating to cut themselves off from what has most likely been their lifeblood & soul since they can remember starting to breathe … but this is crazy.

The Trump family and half of his Cabinet, let alone close friends, will most likely benefit from how he thinks & what he thinks should be done. It will reek of corruption as we try and disentangle what is truly just a good idea and what is an idea driven by what will benefit them <and even then someone will have to disentangle whether that is simply the outcome of what is best for everyone or simply a skewed-billionaire-warped-view of what is good for everyday schmucks like me>.

I am not smart enough to figure out how to create enough distance so we can assess ideas fairly, and corruption issues fairly, but what I do know is that I am smart enough to have resolved it within the first 100 days. Not just for the image of things but because it will dog every recommendation, every tactic, every decision and everything discussed from day 101 until … well … whenever.

This is like carrying a backpack filled with 100 pounds of rocks while you try and run a 100 yard dash. And then saying at yard 101 … “what the hell, let’s keep the back pack on, and full of rocks, and lets run the rest of the race.”

I give an F for not even dealing with it and an ‘incomplete’ on actual corruption because we need to see real policy to judge who benefits and who doesn’t.

Discourse

It has almost become this alternative universe in which because my new boss has no filter and scatters random facts, lies and hyperbole like an autumn wind blows leaves in your gutters clogging them all up and rotting the house unseen.

In this alternative universe everyone who works for my new boss, even smart people and savvy politicians, can start saying stupid things under the guise of ‘being unfiltered truth tellers.’ Trump’s blunt high school discourse style is bleeding into the entire administration discourse.

In other words … the discourse has lowered to a place a snake could jump over it.

What do I mean?

When someone like Jeff Sessions, a seemingly heinous man but a savvy politician, barrels into a conversation referring to Hawaii <an actual state in the United States>, disdainfully, as “an island in the middle of the Pacific” that feels like a ripple affect empowerment of the boss standards/style than it does of someone who really knows better <that they are a role model>.

And then there is Spicey <Sean Spicer> who seems semi-qualified, experienced and not stupid and, yet, day after day he stands up in a press briefing room spewing … well … stupidity.

Okay. That was harsh

Let me say it better.

Donald J Trump is encouraging everyone in his administration to be a little bit lazier with how thoughtful they are in how they say things. I am sure they would argue I am tainted by the heinous ‘political correctness’ disease but I would suggest back to them that words matter, words can create some unintended beliefs on intentions <speaker’s and administration> and words can actually encourage some distinct behavior & attitudes.

If they were in a bar, I wouldn’t care. They are the leaders of 330 million people.

I would encourage them to embrace the good aspects of political correctness and embrace a civil discourse, respect & dignity for all 50 states/330 million people/all the countries around the world, and stop being lazy with thinking about what they say.

Oh.

The only place we have seen solid discourse is the military cabinet members. Stellar communication. Mostly unseen by majority of Americans Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis and Army Gen. Joseph Votel, the chief of Central Command, gave a press conference … in the midst of confusing communication from everyone else in the administration, the president included, was refreshingly clear & candid.

Sigh <again>.

On discourse … I can’t even grade the administration because I want to drop them back several grades to elementary school and have some English teacher remind them of proper use of adjectives, adverbs and general punctuation.

I dream about the day Trump can put together a coherent paragraph.

Society cannot take another couple hundred days of this style of discourse let alone the first 100 days we have endured.

We are becoming worse as people through the type of communication & discourse taking place by this administration. That deserves an F.

Coordination, collusion or clueless.

This Russia thing. Whew. This thing just will not go away.

At minimum it just looks like coordination <not collusion>.

What do I mean?

Someone, maybe someones, in the Trump campaign had access to some good juicy information and they handed it over to Trump, who would never in a million years think or ask whether he should use it <because (a) he does not care if something is true or not if it sounds good, and (b) all he cares about is making news and winning> and he used it.

Or someone whispered in Trump’s ear some juicy conspiracy theory and he jumped at the chance to sling it out there and that someone <or someones> mentioned to the juicy information providers Trump was jumping on something and they set their trolls out to make it seem like it was real & viable.

The difficulty is there may be nothing there … but they seem like they are hiding something by constantly denying … well … everything … only to be proven wrong and it certainly seems too coincidental in a variety of ways to be random.

Look.

The president’s issue is one of two things … he was either complicit or he was naïve. I cannot envision either of those two things being publicly spewed forth in the media, by the media, will be palatable to the narcissistic ‘I have a big brain’ Donald J Trump.

But … you know how to make the Russia thing go away? Someone should tell the president to stop tweeting crap and stand up and say “here is who met Russian people during the campaign, what they said, and from here on out no matter how much you dig there is no more.”

Just a side note to the silly people who say “no Russian made someone vote some way.” You really can’t believe that. Not if you have ever had a career in advertising & marketing. Effective communications can inspire people to think & do things. Effective propaganda can inspire people to think stupid things and do stupid things.

All that said.

Hanging over the administration neck is either coordination, collusion or cluelessness.

Pick your poison … you may not die from it but it is surely painful now and will remain painful.

Here is where they earn their business management F — any quasi-competent public relations person will say “stop ignoring this and kill it now … or it is going to dog you for the next foreseeable 100 day increments.” As long as this issue stays alive you may as well place another 25 pounds of rocks in the backpack you are already carrying <with rocks already in it>.

The plan: vision, roadmap, tactics & strategies

We are watching 100 day business malpractice on this item on the report card.

There is no plan.

We have heard no vision.

We haven’t really been offered a tactical plan of action <and how the tactics would be implemented>.

And I certainly haven’t heard any strategies to meet any articulated objective.

Sure.

Some of the things he does certainly sends an “American First” message … but they are verbally driven tactics <not tangible doing stuff>. As for the long game … well … there is no long game. It smells of a short term amateur leader saying to his people at the table “I need to do something, anything, tell me what my options are because I am going to do something.”

So far the only roadmap I have seen is “they have no coherent strategy and will act impulsively” combined with “a leader anxious to use his military to make a point.”

This is malpractice.

And I say that and I am not even a big “plan” guy.

But every 100 day scenario I have ever been part of has created a road map to get shit done and what objectives we were aiming for and an overall vision so that the people on the ground never lost the North Star. Everyone finds that the roadmap has changed a bit at the 100 day mark, and that some things are done and others are not … but … at day 101 everyone is still going north and all the troops know what battle they are preparing for and you gather up the wins as wins and the losses are usually simply shit you just couldn’t get to.

Ok.

This is not malpractice … this is criminal.

This is the kind of shit every business leader can do in their sleep <not always well but can do>.

This is the kind of criminal activity that pisses other, more competent, business people off … because it is basic foundational “how to run a business” stuff.

I wouldn’t give an F … I would expel them from school — fire them.

Image

I tossed this one in here because by America being a global leader, at the end of a 100 days, it’s nice to assess the world’s view of the country image. In addition … I know image is important to Donald J Trump <oh, I mean mostly his own image is important>.

There are two parts to this one – domestic image & global image.

Domestic image

I will give him credit.

He is doing everything in his power to make himself look great <again and again>. He signs more pieces of paper under the spotlight than anyone has ever done before <bigly> as well as bolts on hyperbole to everything he says and about what he does do <biggest, greatest, only, no one else/before, etc> . Let me address the ‘doing’ image part first.

Here is the truth behind all those paper signing events:

Like most of Trump’s regulatory executive orders, Friday’s presidential actions will have little effect by themselves. Instead, Trump will instruct regulators to reexamine existing rules with an eye to rescinding them. But that process of deregulation can be as complicated as the original regulations, requiring the Treasury Department to ask for public comment and conduct a legal analysis.

And Mnuchin said the orders don’t give him any authority he doesn’t already have. “The purpose of the orders is to make clear what the administration’s and the president’s priorities are, and signal the importance of these issues to the American people,” he said.

The actions to be signed Friday include one executive order and two similar directives called presidential memoranda. In his first 92 days, Trump has now signed 25 executive orders and 15 presidential memoranda.

He is a paper signer and really not a doer. He is a transactional president seeking desperately for a transaction to own.

Dropping bombs? Transaction.

Travel ban? Attempted transaction.

Sending armada to intimidate? Faux transaction.

His domestic image is teetering on his hollow entertainment spotlight experiences. He teeters on the line of “wow, I am doing a lot of shit and meeting promises” and “incompetent bumbling.”

When others see his approval ratings they see good approval among minority & disapproval among majority. I do not. I see a population sitting on the sidelines watching the game with skepticism.

If you look behind the surface numbers you will see everyone expresses deep doubts & concerns <overall> but jump on semi-competent Trump behavior to express positive reinforcement … in other words … many people are actively seeking to find something positive to say <that is viewing the research through a people behavioral lens>.

The way to wrap your head around the contradictory information is to simply say that while people have some serious doubts they have not given up on him & the administration yet<that is a hollow win for Trump which he can take advantage of or lose as time progresses>.

The Republicans remain hopefully skeptical and the Democrats are in skeptically in despair that he has shown no improvement <but desperately want some improvement>.

I could argue that the Trump domestic image is in a huge world of hurt … but just as easily I could argue the Donald J Trump administration domestic image is positioned for huge success.

What I do know is that the first 100 days have been wasted in not actually building a solid image and yet the administration has worked extensively to build the appearance of a solid image.

Every business person with half a brain knows that this is not sustainable. At some point the façade needs a house built behind it.

Skepticism is like a virus. Untreated it can kill you.

They deserve no grade on this because they are at home sick — let’s hope, for the country’s sake, they get well soon.

Global image

Trump has a big issue … it is a … well … all country-by-country global image issue. While he sees unpredictability as a positive the rest of the world simply sees “making it up as he goes” and “he doesn’t know what the hell he is doing.”

While Trump vocalizes positive thoughts about Marine Le Pen surveys continue to show the majority of France just think he is nuts.

While Trump talks about … well … everything … the Russian media swings back & forth on positive <anti typical American moralistic establishment> and negative <loose cannon who doesn’t have the consistent leadership skills of Putin>.

He has pissed off a number of countries either through ignorant talk <naivete> or less-than-diplomatic direct interactions. The rest of the world absolutely sees he loves playing with soldiers & gun & bombs but is less sure he loves knowing how the world actually works.

All I can say is that, after 100 days, television in the USA is constantly seeking to find the silver lining in every breath he takes … while global television simply laughs – at him and at the USA.

Every business person knows image isn’t everything … but it is part of the whole thing. Style AND substance matters. Right now I would grade the image as “incomplete.” It remains mostly hollow now but … given the right focus and effort … it can be filled in a way that builds a good solid image <but I am not holding my breath>.

Okay.

That is my main report card … not so good for Donald J Trump through a business guy’s lens.

Oh.

But I do have one more thing.

They will not judge themselves on this one but I sure as shit am.

Message to our young people

We have about 75 million young people under the age of 18. They watch, listen and discuss among themselves what is going on. They watch, listen and think as we adults discuss among ourselves what is being said and going on.

Because we have a combative, narcissistic, intellectual-curious-challenged president it seems like all communications are developed and communicated as if they are designed to one specific audience – it is almost like they think in a one-to-one communication tunnel <by the way … many politicians, in general, edge into this territory it is just the Trump administration has set up home in this territory>.

If it is supposed to be a message to democrats it is a “you suck & are a loser” message.

If it is supposed to be a message to the media it is a “you lie and are fake” message.

If it is supposed to be a message to the world it is “there is no we, only I matters.”

If it is supposed to be a message to Americans on why something was not done it is “someone else is to blame.”

<note: watch this last one arise to a crescendo this week … blaming democrats, establishment, unicorns, media, karma & any Republican he can point a finger at — but never himself>

Sigh.

It is so misguided with regard to how we want our youth to think it can make you sad if you think about it too much.

Now.

That said.

I was livid when scanning a moment in a press briefing the other day where Sean Spicer, obviously channeling Trump, aggressively stated “somehow the Democrats are trying to position the recent Georgia 6th district election as a win, it was a loss. They lost. There is no other way to look at it. They lost.”

<envision my head exploding here>

Okay.

Listen up you assholes … what this tells children is that if 25 kids are in a race 1 is a winner, the other 24 are losers. This suggests that even if you weren’t even supposed to finish the race of 25 … and you finished 10th you shouldn’t celebrate … because you lost … and you are a loser.

Sorry Sean <and your sorry administration> … fuck you.

I know you want to send a direct message to Democrats, which in your pea-like brain are the only people who exist in this country you plan on making great again, but there are 330 million people and , maybe more importantly, maybe 75 million young people watching, listening & discussing the shit <words> you say.

Where is respect for competition & your competitors?

Where is dignity in the win?

Where is how you play, and how you win, is maybe more important than winning?

Where is the fact that, in times of despair, moral victories are what people use to get up again the next morning, to pick up their weapon and walk into another battle, to tell their child that they shouldn’t quit because maybe that had got one step farther … while still ending one step behind?

Where is that … you shitheads?

You may think you are communicating your asshat thoughts directly to one audience and one audience alone … but everything you say is communicating with 330 million people. Ponder that you assholes.

On this judgement I will not give them a grade … I will just say they are losers.

And they lose every time they pull this shit.

Anyway.

Conclusion.

100 days performance.

Yeah.

Judging on 100 days is fair.

Judge the little shit if you want … how he is meeting “his promises” if you want <NPR did a nice job of listing all the promises out for you — see below>.

In my mind that is the wrong way to judge the 1st 100 days — although the politicians & pundits seem to be making it the way to develop the Trump report card. The promises, at best, are tactics. Mostly they were simply soundbites to energize listeners.

I could also argue that if a promise was stupid in the first place isn’t it just stupid to do it … let alone give someone credit for doing it?

Anyway.

If you judge Donald J Trump and his administration solely on promises made/promises, you simply join him skating on the incredibly thin ice of the slippery surface of irrelevance.

We should want to see the roadmap, the vision, the strategy, objectives and throw in some tactics if you want … and hire some frickin’ people to get it all done <not just some promises made & met>.

I want to see the organizational infrastructure necessary to lead, build & implement a plan <if a plan is ever developed>.

Overall they don’t deserve even an F.

It is a 100 days empty of what would make the following 100 day increments unfold effectively & efficiently. Strip away “promises met” and focus on the more important larger construct of “who” will make “what” happen and the Trump administration on day 101 looks an awful lot like what they did on day 1. This would suggest that not only should we expect the exact same

“It is perchance without reason that we attribute to simple-mindedness and ignorance to the readiness to believe and to be convinced.

For it seems to me that I once learned the belief was, as it were, an impression that was made on our minds, and that, the softer and less resistant the mind, the easier it was to imprint something on it.

As the scale of the balance must necessarily sink when weights are placed upon it, so the mind must yield to clear proof. The more empty and without counterpoise the mind is, the more easily the scale sinks under the weight of the first argument.”

—-

Michel de Montaigne

=================================

Murphy’s Third Law

Nothing is ever so simple as it first seems

======================================

Ok.

……….. listening to Trump nonsense ………..

There are times I listen to something Donald J Trump says and I am torn between laughing so hard my sides hurt and banging my head on the table.

The one recurring ‘something’ we keep hearing is his statements that “no one knew it was this complicated” or the other version … “its not that easy.”

Really ??!!??

No one?

Uhm.

I am not the president and I cannot even fathom the sheer weight of responsibility & decision-making. But in my fairly common career I have seen the inner workings of the complex healthcare industry, the inner workings of what it takes to make a global organization set standards & meet standards, the inner workings of a complex energy grid industry delivering electricity across the country, the inner workings of complex manufacturing, the inner workings of a successful complex customer service initiative in a global hospitality brand … shit … even a small business is complex … and, well ,,, almost every industry between sales, service, production, , financial management, operations, regulatory, multi-channel distribution and management is complicated.

Suffice it to say … there is never ‘one part’ … there are always lots of moving parts … some in your control and some not in your control, therefore, there is never simplicity.

So when he gives us a smug look of concern and says “whew, this shit is complicated”… I say … well … no shit Sherlock <and think of Scooby responding to something Shaggy said>.

Look.

99% of business leaders know everything is complex … nothing is simple.

80% of people, everyday schmucks like me, are fairly sure everything is more complex than it often appears to be <and how we talk about it>.

But apparently our 1 president was convinced that everything was straightforward, simpler than others were making it out to be … and he was the “only one who could solve it.”

What a stupidfuck thing to say … and think.

As I noted in my “last stand of the old white men’ piece … I know we have had most of the intelligence & critical thinking in us scraped out by the ”simplicity is everything” knife but you would think that the creators of this ‘hollow communications initiative’, the 60 & 70somethings, would not really believe the shit they’ve been selling us for years.

You would think that they wouldn’t really believe that everything can be communicated in an elevator speech or three bullet point or some PowerPoint slide.

Ok.

Ok. Maybe most do know that … but Trump seems to have missed the message.

————–

Communication.

Effective communication has been, and always will be, complex and complicated … and a good thing for society. Effective communication inevitably feeds into the minds and enlightenment of the listeners. If you dumb down communication inevitably you dumb down the listeners.

Old white men hollowed out communication. I imagine as they hollowed out everything else they found it inherently more productive to gain their objectives by hollowing out communication. Everything became soundbites, powerpoint bullet points and ‘elevator speeches.’ Effectively communicating complexity took on less importance than puncturing the mind with a quick sharp stab <and then walking away>. Old white men mastered the art of emptying communication to a point where businesses end up walking on the slippery surface of irrelevance <cloaked in a beautiful robe called “what is important for you to know.”>

That is Trump in a nutshell.

—————–

Anyway.

I don’t need my president to be a Mensa member. Shit. They don’t even have to know big words or have a good brain. But I do need them to be intellectually curious, interested in learning and have at least a passing interest in history <or historical precedent>.

If I were generous toward Trump I could suggest much of what we are watching, in painful real time, is that he simply didn’t know what the hell he was talking about <the facts of the issue> … and now he does.

If I were less than generous I would hearken back to the Montaigne thought I shared upfront the softer and less resistant the mind, the easier it was to imprint something on it. The more empty and without counterpoise the mind is, the more easily the scale sinks under the weight of the first argument.

I use that thought because … well … one could quite easily be convinced someone who publicly states “no one knew it was this complicated” <when pretty much everyone already knew> would be someone who had a ‘more empty and without counterpoise mind.’

If I had lost all my generosity I would be tempted to suggest that Trump is a double whammy … <a> a blank slate mentally and <b> only sees round holes where he looks.

Huh? Simple minds see problems as simple ‘holes’ to be filled by jamming in whatever peg is at hand.

I am not sure Trump has any real policies, just a bunch of pegs in hand to jam into holes, but if he does … they are so poorly constructed and so weakly held that, literally, one would assume the final decision filter is really the only thing he holds dear – his ego, his ‘brand’, his wallet.

People should ponder that last thought as they discuss a scary, possibly misguided, belief that Trump’s tendency is to take up the position of the last person he spoke with on any given issue – because that may be too simplistic.

His dazzling combination of little knowledge, no practical organizational management experience, a lack of ideological commitment to anything and an ongoing puzzlement that things just aren’t as simple as he believed <or he believed anyone believed> suggests we are in for a rough ride.

Why?

Because the empty mind will sink against the weight of <a> the first argument which <b> meets his ego/brand.

Sigh.

“No one knew it was this complicated.”

I am at a loss for words … so … the more empty and without counterpoise the mind is, the more easily the scale sinks under the weight of the first argument. <Michel de Montaigne>

I try to not call Donald J Trump an idiot out of business respect <you assume anyone who can run a business knows something you don’t know> but, whew, he makes it more & more difficult every day.

That actually means we are on our own. We have no rights, no privileges, no nothing to support or comfort our existence except what we choose to provide each other.

That said.

Let me make sure we are all on the same page with regard to ”rights” … which means you need to ponder rights, freedom, liberty, prerogative and privilege.

All of these are words which refer to the fundamental claims a person can properly make or his unfettered ability to choose <Use The Right Word: S.I. Hayakawa>.

Right suggests a concrete claim established by legal, ethical or religious sanctions <e.g., right to equality before the law>. Although … someone claiming a right tends to argue it is inherent, a person’s rights are differently spelled out in different cultures & countries.

Liberty is a more abstract and general notion suggesting the opportunity to choose among alternatives. A document such as the Bill of Rights spells out these conditions a citizen may construe as his rights. However … these liberties may sometimes in fact refer to an unwarranted breach of someone else’s right to consideration <we do not enjoy unbridled liberty without regard for the rights of others>.

Civil liberty is understood to refer to all the rights enumerated in the US Constitution and its amendments.

Freedom is close to liberty in its abstract generality but stresses a total lack of constraint more than the opportunity for choice.

Prerogative and privilege are much more specific in their meanings than the other words here. Prerogative refers to a right that one has by virtue of age, sex or position.

Privilege suggests advantages given as favors or added luxuries rather than necessary rights.

I share all that to point out that while we may complicate our lives by confusing all these dynamics we also complicate our lives unnecessarily.

Anyway.

We tend to complicate our lives in a number of ways.

Sometimes it is we feel like Life, or the universe, should be a little more helpful.

Sometimes we confuse privileges and rights.

Sometimes we seek an easier path because the way we are going seems a little too hard.

Sometimes we abuse rights in the pursuit of bad things.

Sometimes we assume privileges with regard to desire of good things.

============

“People tend to complicate their lives, as if living weren’t already complicated enough.”

—

Carlos Ruiz Zafon

=============

“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”

—-

Søren Kierkegaard

===========

Far too often we view freedoms as freedom to be stupid, idiotic or thoughtless.

Specifically, far too often we view freedom of speech as a way to shared well-articulated insightful thoughts to better the world around them imply because … well … we were fortunate enough to be nearby when speech, freely given, was shared.

Well.

Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom to say only smart things. It also means freedom to be stupid, idiotic and thoughtless.

And, yet, as John Stuart Mill argued in “On Liberty,” freedom of expression is the freedom on which all other civic rights are based <someone should remind our President of this>.

Now.

I do believe those who speak have a responsibility to be … well … responsible. Freedom of speech, and expression, is a privilege not to be abused. But that is my opinion.

Just mine.

However … stupidity aside … I would rather someone speak, regardless of what is said opinion wise, than for there to be silence. In a world in which we complicate our lives and confuse liberties and freedoms and privileges … we shouldn’t shut up. And we shouldn’t simply shut off someone because they confuse all these things.

Here is the real truth:

=========

“Idiocy thrives in the dark, not in dialogue.”

—-

Jen Floyd Engel columnist

=====

I have had this debate, sometimes argument, with several people.

I want neo-Nazis peaking on campuses.

I want feminists raging through megaphones on stand at street corners.

I want pro Life & pro Choice advocates debating on stages throughout America.

I want the most extreme of all sides and dimensions and directions to publicly have the opportunity to speak out.

First of all.

We should all want that.

We, here in the USA, actually live in a country where unless you shout “fire” in some movie theater or seriously offer harmful threats you actually have the privilege & right to speak your mind. This is a gift that USA gives its citizens … a gift many of the 192 countries around the world are not so quick to give their citizens.

Second.

We should abhor silence.

It seems to me that we are quickly heading down a path where the only opinions safe to say out loud are the benign most milquetoast ‘safe havens’ of speech … Hitler was bad, genocide is bad, beets are bad <oops, that last one was just a personal benign opinion>.

We say we want honesty.

We say we want to hear the truth.

We say we want free speech.

And yet we are relentless in chastising those who choose to speak … and the words they choose to speak are wrong, maybe even stupid and possibly ignorant.

Uhm. This makes me say …

“I have met the enemy and the enemy is us.”

I do believe we are in the midst of a crisis of truth, ignorance and enlightenment … and freedoms, rights & privileges.

And it is an odd crisis in that we may actually speak up and out … but constantly get trapped in some simplistic dualisms — liberalism versus authoritarianism, Islam versus … well … Christianity/America/constitution/etc., white versus non white, intellectual versus nonintellectual, urban versus rural … and any other dualism thing you want to add.

But our issues seem to be more complex than ‘if this or maybe that.’

Our issues get compounded by the natural ebb & flow of “rights” <speech, religion, press, etc.> and what we believe is … well … right … all combined with the unfortunate situation that the everyday person struggles to discerns fact from fiction <and our current President has created his own fictional alternative universe in which his ‘facts’ exist and he wants to manage the narrative as ‘his universe depicting reality>.

We complicate our lives needlessly.

And while Alexis de Tocqueville suggested in the 1830s that the American promise of meritocracy, its uniformity of culture and manners, and “equality of conditions” would make for immoderate ambition, corrosive envy and chronic dissatisfaction and could swell “to the height of fury” and lead many to acquiesce in a curtailment of their liberties all leading to a longing for the rule of a strongman … I do not agree.

No matter how divisive we may get and no matter how much we complicate our own lives and how much we may confuse what we deserve and what we earn … what is a privilege and what is a right … all of our freedoms & rights are grounded in the one unchangeable thing we have … the constitution.

That said. I am reminded of some words written by William Martin in his fabulous book “The Lost Constitution”:

=======

“A real American will tell you that our Constitution is not a tool for politicians hoping to make points, whether it is a cynical Republican pushing flag burning amendments because their poll numbers are down or a do-gooding Democrat who decides to protect ourselves by banning guns. The Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they made the Constitution difficult to amend, so let’s think hard before we mess with it.

What it says is what t said two hundred years ago. I think the men who set their thoughts down here were men who cared about America. Some of them believed in a strong central government, some believed that government governs best which governs least, but all of them believed in the ability of thinking Americans to get up in the morning and resolve their differences and solve their problems. And we have lost that in this country.

The framers created a means of changing this document because they understood that the world would change. But they didn’t want to make it easy. So it up to you, the people, pick up your newspaper and read them, and think about what you read, and don’t always believe what you hear just because it is what you want to hear,. And don’t listen to what you want to hear because you hear it from somebody who shouts it loud or makes you laugh. The constitution demands more. Don’t believe the people who vote straight democrat any more than you believe the people who befoul the airwaves with rightist rhetoric every day. The theme, on every night, is that we are all American. “

==========

It is an odd place we are in today.

It seems like never have so many free individuals felt so helpless and in their helpless feeling many people seem almost desperate to wrest control from anyone, and institutions in particular, they can blame for their feeling ‘lostness’ <however you would like to define lost>.

As I finish up this piece today it seems important to remind everyone that freedom of speech is just that … freedom of speech – and that freedom of speech is the foundation upon which all civil liberties reside.

I would rather idiocy, our confusion about what we deserve and do not deserve, be discussed rather than have to thrive in the darkness of silent strength.

“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges.

They may be Mohometans, Jews or Christians of any sect, or they may be atheists.”

—–

George Washington

=============

Ok.

I have commented several times on what I would consider a needless “travel ban” but Donald J’s insistence to issue a new improved travel ban under the guise of national security has inspired me to comment one more time.

When the best thing anyone can say about some initiative you are attempting to implement is:

… call new travel ban ‘a good overhaul’ that will ‘stand legal scrutiny’

… well … you are in trouble. I don’t really ever want the main reason to do something to be “it is legal.” I would much prefer my number 1 reason everyone wants to do something be … well … it is a damn good idea.

Look.

I am all for national security.

And I do believe a president has the right to take some extraordinary actions with the best intentions of citizens in mind.

But that is where I hesitate on this … my sense is that this whole travel ban is in the best interest of one citizen … Donald J Trump and his ego.

Since the 80’s death in the US by terrorism is around 3500 plus <including 9/11> in the same time there has been 60.000 work place related death and 900.000 death by gun violence.

Read any report you want and you can find little to point to these countries as ‘terrorist pipelines to America’ as well as anything that would suggest our current vetting process and immigration policy is flawed enough to permit an influx of terrorists.

But I imagine all could be resolved in my mind with answers to two basic questions:

You were urgent in the initial ban with regard to our security and concerns with vetting … what specifically have you done in the past month to shore it up <because I assume it was important enough you didn’t just take your ball home sulking>?

What can you do now, in a pause, which you couldn’t do in the past 4 weeks? <what specific benefit does the ‘pause’ give us>

Answer those well and I will reconsider my view on this and maybe even get off your back.

Here is what I know as a business guy.

Empty promises fulfilled … remain empty.

Most business leaders are very careful with regard to what they promise their employees. And then … even when promising something … they are even more careful about fulfilling any stated promise. The latter is maybe even more important than the former.

Nothing kills a business leader faster than asking employees to do something simply to do something <and it is not a priority need for energy>.

That has always been the flaw in “doing what you said you would do.” if what you say is wrong, stupid, silly or ignorant than doing is simply a reflection of … well … all those things.

In the business world we call that wasted energy or a ‘completed wrong.’

This is when a business leader forces action simply to prove a point.

This is when an organization starts losing respect for a leader.

In today’ business world most businesses run so lean being able to effectively prioritize resources and energy is possibly the most important skill a leader can bring to an organization.

Employees do not suffer fools lightly.

And maybe that is why I will continue to crush Donald J for his lack of leadership skills.

Yes. He made a stupid promise while campaigning.

Yes. He tried to fulfill the stupid promise stupidly a month ago.

But he had an opportunity to right all wrongs in one fell swoop in this place and time … and a good leader would have seen the opportunity.

All he had to do was stand up in front of a microphone and a gazillion cameras <and hopefully a teleprompter> and said …

“I continue to believe the original ban was the best thing for America but I honored the decision made by our judiciary system and honored the ‘ban pause’ … but I, and we, did not pause in our efforts to keep people safe & secure … over the past week the following departments <name them> have done these things <list them> and have already begun implementing my <incredibly stupidly called> extreme vetting process. While it would have been easier for the people protecting you to have done this during a pause they never wavered in their determined effort to close the holes in the vetting process and I have decided to put the entire travel ban on hold until there may come a time where we identify a need to pause to further improve the process.”

And in one simple long paragraph explanation he has fulfilled his promise and stopped any wasted energy … and even gets some points on leadership.

Did he do this? Are you fucking nuts? I bet this didn’t even cross his mind.

Leaders always have choices when they make a decision.

With regard to this one I sense the main Trumpian business flaw – transactional versus strategic.

My fear is Trump views immigration as a transaction between the ‘incoming’ and the country – “here is what you are buying and if you buy it you have committed to it.” This comes to Life most easily in how he discusses a ‘merit based’ immigration policy but it also hides among words like “people who value our values and think America is great.”

If I view immigration transactionally <unless I view it through a ‘lifetime value lens’> I will inevitably misjudge the value of the transaction.

Immigration is more like a long term contract in which both parties have commitments.

“I am offering you a long term contact in which I will provide you rights, privileges, freedoms and opportunities <that is my promise in this contract> and you will provide a commitment to the Constitution, working hard and embracing the freedoms found with american society <with respect>.”

In a mutually beneficial contract both parties receive value.

In a mutually beneficial contract both parties are equal … one party is not subservient to the other.

Look.

I do believe America is great <for a variety of reasons>. But I have said this before and I will say this again … to make America even greater I shouldn’t be keeping people out I should be strengthening the idea, and values, of America to a point where the right people self select wanting to be part of the idea of America.

And an unintended consequence <actually an intended one> if I approach immigration that way is I also strengthen the idea of America for current Americans which strengthens who we are, what we believe and how we behave.

In the end.

This revised travel ban is stupid.

It has all the signs of the kind of thing a petulant leader does simply to make a point.

And, worse? It diverts energy & resources at a time where we should be assessing energy & resources as ‘most efficient use.’

He is a horrible business leader taking his horrible lack of leadership skills into the presidency.

“She destroyed too many good things in society, and created too many bad ones, then left a social and moral vacuum in which the selfishly rich and unimaginatively fortunate could too easily destroy still more of what they don’t need and can’t see that everyone else does need.”

—-

Emma Darwin

============

Well.

Oh.

How easy it is to overlook moral responsibility.

Sigh.

A lot of presidential executive order type shit is happening which, taken one by one, represent some viable policy discussions which should happen … but as a whole … reflect we are now in a struggle for the soul of America – a struggle for our moral core.

Our President does not appear to have a soul of integrity & dignity only a core of ‘win at all and any costs’ nor does he appear to believe America has a soul other than a platitude of ‘patriotism’ <which he seems to think is made up of solely of military, law & order and power> nor does he appear to be centered on any moral imperative beyond ‘winning’ <and looking impressive & strong>.

Regardless.

This, simplistically, is a discussion between “the win justifies the means”versus “the means justifies the win.”

In all candor I am not a bleeding heart liberal nor do I espouse mamby pamby milquetoast spineless jelly fish behavior. I believe there is a time to stand with strength, there is a time to be competitive, there are winners and losers and not everyone should get a trophy and that being nice isn’t an imperative with regard to how you play the game or be competitive.

That said.

How you play the game matters.

And I can almost 99% guarantee the American Symbolic Chief, or our President, only cares about how you look while you play the game <the ‘trappings as it were> and whether you win.

Now.

I have several proof points with regard to his lack of soul and moral imperative but the one I go to is the one he has consistently espoused “I am open to waterboarding <torture> because they are playing with different rules than we are and are killing us.”

This is “so if they are cheating, we can cheat to”logic <I am sure his military school would be proud of that logic>.

He uses this logic … well … on everything and with everyone.

This is not some dilemma created by the ravages of war.

There is no dilemma.

Your competition does not dictate how you decide to play the game … you decide how you want to play the game.

Okay.

Don’t like that example?

How about stealing someone’s oil as compensation for having sent soldiers to fight.

This is kind of like saying “we sent police to your home to protect you and they will take something from your home as they leave because you owe it to them.”

“We should have kept the oil when we got out,” Trump said about the U.S. involvement in Iraq. “Had we taken the oil, we wouldn’t have had ISIS.”

Uhm.

Pillaging is illegal <violates the Annex to the Hague Convention of 1907 on the Laws and Customs of War and the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War>.

And, yet, our multi-millionaire trying to play being a President insists it wouldn’t break international law.

====

Muir: You’ve heard the critics who say that would break all international law, taking the oil. But I wanna get to the words …

Trump: Wait, wait, can you believe that? Who are the critics who say that? Fools.

Muir: Let, let me …

Trump: I don’t call them critics. I call them fools.

====

Morals? What morals?

Soul? A soul empty of anything but “I believe what I believe” and “what I want is what is right.”

Uhm.

That constitutes a lack of soul.

Sigh.

But let’s get back to the soul of America just so we are clear.

When we discuss building a wall on our southern border we should be reminded that everyone who sails into New York City passes by the Statue of Liberty with these words on it:

—

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The New Colossus By Emma Lazarus

—

“your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”

These are some powerful words. Those are some words you can imagine would find a nice warm home in a soul.

I absolutely hear the anti-immigration people loud and clear … and while I hear Trump and his wall and “a country has to have borders” I would argue he is being simplistically tangible and that he would be better served, as America would be also, if we approached this viable argument by attempting to construct a stronger mental/ideological national construct so that more people are likeminded in attitude <beyond simply coming to America to build prosperity>.

By the way.

Trump is going to be trapped by his ‘welcome if you are productive’ <money is everything> crap in that the criteria for citizenship is not whether you create wealth but rather whether you embrace the constitution, the idea of America and the freedoms it embodies. His ideology would suggest you could be a terrorist but if you are a productive terrorist who maybe owns a small business … well … you are welcome <but he is not smart enough to recognize that trap>.

Regardless.

While some social lawyerly types will most likely come out of the woodwork and condemn my suggestions on how we could build a stronger ideological construct bear with the thinking:

I wrote this thought back in April 2010 … but … bring back the Pledge of Allegiance <pre-Eisenhower version> as a school behavior. It was Eisenhower who added “one nation under God” … eliminate it and have all kids in all schools say the pledge of allegiance. What was made my man can be unmade by man. Let’s reestablish some national civic pride in who and what we are … and let people have the freedom to believe in whatever God they want to believe in.

Make English the national language. What the hell. Why not? Half of American born citizens speak crappy English so why not make it mandatory that all 330 million people have to speak crappy English if you want to be an American citizen.

Making voting mandatory. It is one of the greatest privileges we, as a country, offers. If you want to live in America than you must activate one of your greatest privileges.

Heck.

I have a couple more but this gets the point across. America was born of immigrants and we open our arms to those who seek to embrace not just prosperity opportunity but more importantly to be able to live within the freedoms we offer. If you want to live here you want to live within that construct.

<note:

I feel compelled to mention that while I advocate what I just stated I am also fairly confident that a fairly significant number of American born multi-generation Americans would fail to pass that test I just outlined>

Next.

Terrorism and immigrants.

Study after study after study <I know President Trump doesn’t read> states, unequivocally, an immigrant is less likely to commit a crime than a nonimmigrant American citizen.

Study after study after study <I know President Trump does not read> states, unequivocally, you are more likely to be terrorized or shot by an American citizen than an immigrant.

But … you know what?

Smarter people than I have tried telling people all the facts but either no one listens, or no one cares or everyone is just too scared that immigrant-driven terrorism to believe it.

And when you are scared, for any reason … valid or invalid … you can decide to do some fairly unreasonable actions.

This non-dilemma is captured in this recent, simple, comment exchange online:

What would your thoughts be if someone in your family had been killed by ISIS? It’s easy sitting in the comfort of your own armchair to take such a moral high ground

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I am reminded that it was Plato who suggested democracies would eventually descend into dictatorships as a result of the need to ‘protect freedoms’ within the democracy.

We need to think about this and think clearly.

The truth is that we everyday schmucks face shit decisions like this almost every day in our jobs.

If I do not do this I will lose my job <and how will I support my family>.

If I do not play by the same rules those cheaters are playing I will never get that promotion <and how will I ever pay for my kid’s education>

If I protect this idea I may lose my job <and how will I survive without food on the table>.

This is not easy shit.

Freedoms, especially American freedoms, are an incredible gift which not many other citizens have. We often overlook their infinite value as we assess Life from an individualistic survival standpoint.

And you know what? It is fair that we do so.

And you know what? It is times like this where we everyday schmucks, who may be smart but recognize that there are a shitload of people out there smarter than us and able to see the ‘long game’ and the repercussions of decision better than us, need to trust someone else.

Do I want to get blown up by some ignorant asshole believing they are making some statement that will change the arc of history? No. of course not.

Am I willing to get blown up knowing that I never sacrificed the greater good, that maybe I touched upon the best version of who I could be as a person and that maybe, just maybe, in my death the people who remain will see the value in Life is in how you lived it and not just in what you achieved? Yeah. I would.

America is an idea.

America is an idea lived out by people.

America is an idea lived out by people who embrace the soul of the idea of which America is founded upon.

With our new President I recognize we are now in a struggle for the soul of America – a struggle for our moral core.

I am personally determined to take up this struggle in any way I can … and anywhere. That, to me, is the patriotic thing to do.

And I will do whatever I can in my little corner of the world. I will fight back by showcasing individual norms which I believe should help guide societal norms … better than the ones our current President offers.

With that I ask … where is John Kasich, where is Mitt Romney, where is George Bush, where is Condeleeza Rice, where is Bill Clinton, where is even Ted Cruz <who I quasi-despise>?

Where are the people who do not exist in little corners of the world and who can stand up for the moral imperatives which make America great?